Senators: Health insurer causes confusion

Updated 10:43 pm, Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Doctors and patients joined three U.S. senators on Wednesday in claiming that UnitedHealthcare put profits over medical care last October when the Minnesota-based insurer dropped 2,250 Connecticut physicians from its Medicare Advantage network.

But the insurance industry and UnitedHealthcare said the recent streamlining plan, which heads to a federal court hearing next week, does not create obstacles to medical attention.

During a field hearing in the state Capitol complex, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., was joined by U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., in accepting testimony that included overwhelming criticism of the insurer's October announcement to remove participating physicians who treat 61,000 state residents, effective Feb. 1.

Blumenthal said that dropping so many doctors during the Medicare open-enrollment period caused "confusion, uncertainty, anxiety and anger" at a time when the elderly had to shop for coverage.

"All they knew was their doctors were out of the network," Blumenthal said. "What we had here was 61,000 patients put through the ringer. This outrageous abuse is unacceptable in Connecticut and should not be tolerated anywhere in the country."

In all, about 140,000 people in the state are registered with the Medicare Advantage program, which is less expensive than traditional Medicare coverage. The hearing was held to see if further congressional oversight is needed.

Dr. Michael Saffir, of Fairfield, president of the Connecticut State Medical Society, said during an afternoon panel session that the announcement last year seemed timed by the insurer to "maximize confusion for patients and doctors" and was also a surprise to a Medicare Advantage advisory panel.

During an earlier news conference also attended by U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., Saffir said that the public needs answers.

"It was more of a hacksaw-type of effect, and it was bad for patients," Saffir said. "Either the decision will be reversed, which is our hope, but there's going to be some decisions that need to be made."

Jessica W. Pappas, spokeswoman for UnitedHealthcare, said Wednesday that the company is working with patients and doctors to address concerns.

"The changes that we and other Medicare Advantage plans are making will bring better health outcomes and more affordable health care coverage to Medicare Advantage members," she said in a statement. "UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage plan members will continue to have access to one of the largest physician networks in Connecticut, including nearly 3,000 primary care physicians and more than 4,400 specialists."

UnitedHealthcare was invited to attend the field hearing, but declined.

Dr. Robert Russo, a Bridgeport physician who is the medical society's president-elect, said that low-income patients in cities such as his are being forced to travel long distances to find doctors left in their networks. He said there is evidence that United Healthcare is manipulating the types of patients they want to insure.

"These people don't own cars," Russo said of affected patients. "There's no way to solve this problem. When they dump the doctor, they know the patient is going to walk away from their insurance company and go somewhere else."

Robert Buccieri of Norwalk, a patient with severe kidney disease, said UnitedHealthcare "pulled the rug out from under me" last fall by eliminating his physicians from the network.